Yellow Sea drill involves no aircraft carriers: US

SEOUL, Aug 20, 2010 (AFP) - A joint US-South Korea anti-submarine exercise in the sensitive Yellow Sea will not involve a US aircraft carrier, the US military said Friday.

Yonhap news agency had quoted government sources as saying the September exercise would be on smaller scale than a previous drill involving US aircraft carrier the George Washington.

The two allies have been carrying out a series of exercises in a warning to North Korea in the wake of the sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, near disputed waters off the western coast, claiming 46 lives.

Seoul blames the loss of the warship on a torpedo attack by a North Korean submarine, an allegation that Pyongyang has vehemently denied.

The United States and South Korea, which hosts 28,500 US troops, moved an exercise in July from the Yellow Sea to the eastern side of the Korean peninsula after Beijing raised concerns about regional tensions.

"The September exercise is an anti-submarine drill and will not involve any US aircraft carrier," Spokesman Kim Yong-Kyu of the US Forces in Korea told AFP.

The Pentagon said Wednesday the two allies would continue a series of exercises that are of a defensive nature and are designed to send "a clear message" to North Korea.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the exercise would be held in international waters.

Military drills involving the United States in the Yellow Sea are a sensitive issue because of the proximity to China and the disputed maritime boundary between South and North Korea.

China, North Korea's closest ally and its most important source of economic and other aid, has refused to criticise Pyongyang over the Cheonan and has repeatedly warned Washington and Seoul against the exercises.

South Korea and the United States are currently engaged in their latest exercise, a round of war games involving tens of thousands of troops that began on Monday.


by Prashant Rao
(c) 2010 AFP